


El's (semi-failed) first surprise party

by harryisqueen



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Birthday Party, F/M, Gen, Mild Language, Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Post-Season/Series 02, Surprise Birthday Party, the party are a load of idiots but it's okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 13:06:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19746340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harryisqueen/pseuds/harryisqueen
Summary: El's friends have been ignoring her for a week and there's only one reason she can think of.They're mad because she's not having a birthday party.Although this fic is spoiler-free my notes at the end are not  :)





	El's (semi-failed) first surprise party

El made her way into the kitchen of the cabin unable to keep the annoyance and hurt off her face, none of her friends had contacted her all week and she wasn’t sure why.

Normally her friends called at least a few times a week, Mike calling her every single night, the others calling her at least a few times a week & as a group would usually come to the cabin to see her once a week but this week had been nothing but silence.

The only person who had called her was Max, she had called El a few times over the past week and then once more yesterday.

They had only spoken for a few minutes yesterday, and Max seemed to be in a rush to get off the phone.

She was fairly sure she wouldn’t have been so upset over this issue if at least Mike had called her or at the least given her a reason why they hadn’t called or came over.

She had no idea what she had done to compel her friends to just completely ignore her for a week now.

El had even recalled their last encounter to try and see if maybe she had done something to make them ignore her.

_The party was gathered around the living room of Hoppers cabin watching a movie they all had been dying to show her._

_She wasn’t entirely sure what the movie was called or what it was even about but she liked being around her friends so she didn’t really mind that she couldn’t follow the movie._

_Suddenly she was pulled from her thoughts by Dustins’ loud voice._

_“Hey, El isn’t your birthday coming up in 11 days?”_

_El blinked at him in confusion before it registered that a few days ago Hopper had told El about birthdays and hers in particular apparently he had also passed this information onto the party._

_“I think so? Hop told me about birthdays.” El said._

_“Did he tell you what you do to celebrate them?” Dustin asked with a grin._

_“No?” El asked in confusion._

_Before Dustin could continue he was interrupted by Max._

_“Hey, blabbermouth why don’t you give it all away?”_

Following that the subject of her birthday had been dropped and they had returned to their movie.

She still wasn’t sure what she had done wrong.

Should she have known what you do to celebrate a birthday, were they mad at her because she didn’t?

This seemed to be the most likely possibility as to why her friends hadn’t been in contact with her.

“Why are you looking so glum lately kid?” Hopper asked.

He was sitting at the kitchen table eating his toast and drinking his morning coffee.

“What do you do to celebrate a birthday?”

El didn’t miss the look of panic cross over his face.

Was this a bad topic?

“Usually you have a party with cake, presents and your friends come over.” He said.

“Can I have a party? Maybe tomorrow?”

Maybe they were mad at her because she wasn’t having a party.

El already had it figured out in her head.

If she had a party she could invite her friends over and they wouldn’t be mad at her anymore.

“El I’m not sure if that’s such a good idea. I’m swamped at the station right now plus you can’t really be out of the cabin too much except for small things and you know we’re going over to Joyce’s Saturday for dinner.”

El’s face fell in disappointment.

“Why can’t I have a party instead of going to Joyce’s for dinner?”

Hopper sighed obviously tossing her idea over in his head a few times.

“El I don’t want to just cancel on Joyce last minute but maybe you can have a little get together next weekend.”

“Yeah maybe,” El mumbled.

Next weekend was a whole week away she couldn't bare being ignored for another week.

She sat down at the table next to Hopper.

El bit her lip and stared at the eggs in front of her in an attempt to stop herself from crying, this was such a silly thing to cry over.

“El eat your breakfast please.”

El glanced up at him with her obviously watery eyes.

“What’s wrong kid?”

Hopper asked concern washing over his face.

“My friends won’t talk to me, they’re ignoring me and I don’t know why and the only guess I have right now is that they are mad at me because I won’t have a party.”

After finally letting it all out El let herself just cry.

She just let every emotion of rejection wash over her whole body.

She believed she faintly heard Hopper mutter shit and heard him stand up from where he was sat.

El felt his hand land on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, she blinked through her tears and saw him crouched next to her.

After running a comforting hand over her shoulder and back for a few moments he spoke.

“El are you sure they’re ignoring you? School is in session so maybe they’re just busy, I’m sure they wouldn’t ignore you over something quite as silly as you not having a birthday party. Listen I’ll buy a cake & I have some presents for you and we can eat that at Joyce’s. Will & Jonathon will be there too so it’ll be like a mini party and then maybe next year you can have a true birthday party with everyone there.”

“Mike.”

Hopper’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Can Mike please come too?” El whispered.

Hopper sighed “Sure kid just call him and see if he can come tomorrow and If he can I’ll pick him up on my way home from work.”

“No.”

Hopper furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“Mike won’t talk to me I’ve tried all week. Can you call him from the station?”

Hopper grunted in annoyance but agreed nonetheless then left for work.

***

El sat on the couch anxiously awaiting Hopper’s arrival.

Mike had gotten permission to come and now he and Hopper were on their way back to the cabin and then onto Joyce’s.

El leapt up from the couch as she heard Hopper’s blazer pull up outside of the cabin.

She stayed still until she heard the secret knock and then as fast as she could she undid all of the locks and the door opened to reveal Hopper and Mike.

“Mike.” El grinned rushing towards him and throwing her arms around his neck.

“Hey, El I missed you.”

She pulled away from the hug and looked over his face.

He appeared to be just as excited to see her.

Moments later the three of them were back in the blazer headed towards Joyce’s.

“Mike, can I ask you something?” El asked nudging Mike who was sat next to her.

He immediately turned his attention towards her and nodded his head.

“Why has no one called or visited me this week? Did I do something wrong?”

Mikes eyebrows shot into his forehead at what normally indicated panic but El wasn’t sure why Mike would have any reason to panic.

“Um we were all really busy this week because um finals are coming up next month and everything but I promise you no one is mad at you.”

He slid his hand into hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

A few minutes later they pulled up in front of the Byers household and climbed out of Hopper's blazer.

Joyce answered the door and as Mike and El walked in hand in hand.

El was startled as all of her friends jumped out yelling “Surprise.” All at once.

El yelped slightly jumping into Mike’s side.

“Happy birthday El!” Dustin shouted walking towards her.

El spotted Steve standing towards the side with Joyce a grin matching Joyce’s on his face.

Dustin wrapped his arms around her followed soon by the rest of the party leading to a group hug amongst the 6 of them.

El felt herself tearing up.

She was confused why did they ignore her for a week then all get together and yell surprise?

Had she done something else wrong?

“Hey, El is everything okay?”

Lucas was the first one to notice that she was upset.

“I don’t understand,” El paused “No one calls me or comes over for a week but then you all get together and shout surprise?”

“Wait a second none of you assholes called for a week?”

“Wait I picked all you shit heads up for this party and none of you even talked to El this week.” Steve piped in from his spot next to Joyce.

Ignoring Steve’s comment Max’s eyes flashed over the 4 boys who were frozen in what appeared to be fear.

El would be scared to if she was fixed with Max's pissed off expression.

“Oh my god, you all are truly idiots. When I said don’t spoil her surprise party I meant try to avoid bringing it up not ignore her for a week.” Max huffed out obviously annoyed.

El was confused again.

“What is surprise party?”

“It’s like a birthday party but other people plan it for you so when you show up you don’t know you’re getting a party." Max paused before once again narrowing her eyes at the 4 boys "Normally you don’t show up upset because 4 dickwads ignored you for a week.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because a surprise birthday party is supposed to be something you don’t expect that’s what makes it fun.” Mike inputs.

El turned to Mike “You lied.”

Mike’s eyes widened at her comment.

“What when?”

“You told me you were busy preparing for finals but you lied.”

“I didn’t lie though El I was preparing for finals that just wasn’t the whole reason I didn’t call.”

Sensing the two of them might want a few minutes alone Will, Lucas, Dustin, Max & Will filed out of the entryway to the Byer’s house and into the living room.

“You lied to me and said you had to prepare for finals. Why didn’t you just tell me about my surprise party?”

“Because I wanted it to stay a surprise and if I told you it wouldn’t have been a surprise.”

“But you still could have called me and talked about other things other than my surprise party.” El pointed out.

“I know and looking back that’s what I should have done but I just didn’t want to spoil anything and I’m terrible at keeping secrets so I figured if I just didn’t call you there was no way the surprise would slip out. I’m really sorry El I acted like a jerk by not calling and lying to you.”

El looked up at Mike’s features she could tell from his face that he felt bad.

“I forgive you, Mike. You didn’t mean to ignore me or lie.”

Mike smiled at her then pulled her to his chest placing a soft kiss on her head.

“Mike?”

“Yeah?”

“This is the only pass you get for lying,” she swallowed “friends still don’t lie.”

“Yes, of course, El and I was a total jerk for lying in the first place.”

****

Despite her initial fear that her friends were mad at her the party turned out to be more fun than El would have ever guessed a party to be.

After they had all ate cake then opened presents and were now sitting on the couch watching a movie, she was snuggled into Mike’s side.

El looked up as Max slid into the tiny empty of the couch on her other side.

“El I just wanted to let you know that although the boys can be complete dumbasses sometimes I’ll never stop calling you because I’m scared I’m going to end up spilling the beans about a party.”

Max left her spot at El’s side to sit next to Lucas after making what Dustin claimed was “A bold statement coming from El’s least favourite.”

Which then sparked a fight over who was her favourite which was solved mildly quickly seeing as El had no problem admitting that Mike was her favourite.

“El you know that really hurts, “Dustin paused to tap his chest “Right here I honestly thought I was your favourite.”

El laughed at Dustin’s mock hurt and before long the party had quieted down to pay attention to the rest of their movie.

*****

As they arrived at the Wheeler’s to drop Mike off El had to practically beg Hopper to let her stand outside the car with Mike for a few minutes and say goodbye.

“Did you enjoy your party?” Mike asked a bright smile on his face.

“Yes, it was so much fun.” El gushed.

“What about my present did you honestly like it?”

El thought back to the necklace that had the letters E & M on it.

Their friends had taken the piss out of the present but El honestly felt as if it was the best present she had received.

“Yes, Mike. It was the best.” She said smiling at him.

“Good. You deserve all the best things in the world.”

El smiled and leaned up and pressed her mouths to Mikes.

“Aye no kissing when I’m 5 feet away and preferably not at all,” Hopper grumbled out of the car window.

El giggled as her cheeks tinted, a blush spreading across her face.

El gave Mike one more kiss before he had to leave.

As he was walking away she reached out her hand for his capturing it.

“Mike, you deserve all the best things in the world too.”

Mikes face broke into a small smile and then gently let go of her hand then began making his way into his house.

El climbed back into the blazer buckling her seatbelt and leaning her head against the window a smile gracing her features.

She truly had the best friends.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts?
> 
> [My tumblr](http://www.harryisqu33n.tumblr.com)
> 
> PS; Rn i'm just pretending Hopper is alive and have been writing fics with him involved alive and well. I have no intention of writing him dead even if it turns out that canonically he's dead. I'm def still gonna pretend daddy Hop is still alive and well bc I'm a bitch baby and my heart can't handle the physical pain of the idea of him being dead. (can y'all tell he's my fave?)


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